Chapter 236

I return to the living room in somewhat of a haze. My mind is still reeling from the possibilities of Steven’s implication, but he seems back to normal now, which confuses me farther. Maybe I had imagined the potential propositioning.

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time Steven and I were accidentally having two different conversations at the same time. It would unlikely be the last either.

Now, back in the living room, Steven goes and collects his tablet. He then excuses himself and heads toward his room. Beau is still sitting there, scrolling through something on his phone. He gets a few texts here and there. I wonder if he’s speaking to other girls.

I don’t feel… jealous by that, exactly. I’ve always known the boundaries of our relationship. Friends with benefits doesn’t mean you can’t talk to other people. And I would have to be some kind of hypocrite to get mad at him when I am actively sleeping with two of his brothers. But it doesn’t feel great either.

To busy myself enough not to think about it overmuch, because I certainly don’t want to go down that rabbit hole of emotion, I walk to the window and peer out at it.

It really is later than I thought. The sky is dark. I can barely see the trees down in the park.

Neil returns while I’m standing there. He comes to stand beside me and we look out the window together.

“Carrie make it there okay?” I ask. I’ve already been warned not to ask too many questions about where exactly she was going. The message I got was, the less I know the better.

And, yeah, that seems like it’s true.

“Yes. We’ve done all we can for her.”

“Thank you, Neil,” I say. “I know you didn’t have to do any of that…”

“No, I should be thanking you, Chloe.” Neil and I look at each other. The weight of his gaze is heavy, bearing down on me. “If it wasn’t for your reminder…” He sighs. “Sometimes it is difficult to remember that we are not like the man who raised us. I hope you will continue to remind us when we veer off course.”

I lightly lay my hand on his arm. We smile at each other, our bond restored. I’m glad we can be like this, like things always were. Of course, I still remember the feel of him inside me, the untold pleasures I experienced, but it was nice to know that outside the bedroom, our relationship wouldn’t change overmuch.

“It’s late,” Archer snaps from the doorway. I didn’t even hear him arrive. “I’ll drive you back to the penthouse, Chloe.” Then he turns and leaves the room again. I guess that’s my signal to go with him down to the garage?

Neil gives me a lingering hug goodbye. “Things will be different now,” he promises. I hope he means it.

Beau tosses his phone aside to the couch cushions and focuses solely on hugging me next. I feel a small thrill of victory. Take that, other girls. “Be careful, Nanny.”

“You be careful too,” I say.

When I break away from the hug, I add, “Tell Steven goodbye for me.”

“We will,” Neil says.

Archer didn’t wait for me at all, so I walk down to the garage all on my own. The minute I walk through the door, Archer kicks off the wall and makes a snide comment.

“You’re too trusting.”

I roll my eyes. Of course, he isn’t just going to drive me home without lecturing me. I should have insisted Neil or Beau drive me instead.

“I’m the perfect level of trusting,” I snap back. I’m not going to take this lecture easily. Sure I almost got killed, but Archer had been willing to leave Carrie alone to die. Neither of us are without some flaws.

“You trusted Carrie, a relative stranger, got in a car with her, and nearly got yourself killed.”

Yeah, okay. When he puts it like that, I can see where he’s coming from. But I absolutely hate when he gets like this, like he’s the end-all of reason and totally infallible in his own right.

“You are always getting yourself into trouble,” Archer says. His voice is getting deeper, dangerous. It’s also sending pleasant shivers up and down my spine.

My body is a complex unit. I can be pissed as hell and horny beyond all reason at the same time, apparently.

“I made the right choices in the end,” I say, and lower my own voice too. I can be serious when I want to be, and I’m so tired of being jerked around by him whenever he feels like it.

“You got lucky,” Archer says. He steps closer to me, chest to chest. This means I have to crane my neck up to see him, while he gets to peer down his nose at me.

I did get lucky, but I’m not ready to admit that. “Luck has nothing to do with it.”

Archer narrows his eyes in the kind of domineering way that simultaneously makes me want to smack him while also dropping my panties.

His voice shifts impossibly lower, so near a growl now. “For worrying everyone like you did, you should be punished.”

I swallow hard as my panties get wet. My nipples peak, pressing outward against my bra, begging for attention.

I know full well the pleasures Archer can deliver. I know this game too. Daddy and his slut. How easy it is to fall into our roles.

He wants to spank me. I can see it in the growing heat in his eyes, the flex in his hands, and the way his dick twitches in his pants.

I’m glad to know I’m not the only one turned the hell on by what’s happening here.

He’s leaving it open, up to me. I have an out here if I want one. I just have to keep fighting. I don’t have to take the punishment if I don’t want it.

But I kind of do want it.

I remember the look on that woman’s face, the first time I had walked in on Archer fucking someone else. She had been so blissed out, she could barely function. Entirely lost to pleasure.

I want that. I want to test the limits with Archer, to see how far he can push while I surrender fully to him.

I haven’t been spanked, but I’ve felt some pleasure pain in my previous experiences now. I know how damn good it can feel when shared with someone I trust. Someone who knows exactly what they are doing, because they know my body almost as well as I do.

Archer is one of those few people I trust.

So I pout my bottom lip slightly, falling back into a role I enjoy more than I want to admit that I do.

No shame, though. Between Archer and me, our game is for us.

I look up at him from under my eyelashes. The fire in his eyes ignites to a full-on inferno.

“Daddy, I’ve been a bad girl.”

He licks his lips. Takes a second. Then he says, “Chloe. Pick a safeword.”